The Unheard Voices of Adolescents

In the Gaza Strip, around one million children are struggling to meet basic needs for food, water, shelter and medical support. Children with disabilities are one of the most affected. They are often unable to flee the violence and are at high risk of abandonment, malnutrition, and trauma. According to a UNICEF partner on the ground, “children with disabilities bear the brunt of the situation, where evacuation and response plans did not take their needs into consideration. Many who use wheelchairs are stuck in tents put up on sandy grounds”.

Over the last seven months, a staggering number of children have been wounded amid intense and often indiscriminate attacks, their lives forever changed by the horrors of war. 

The total number of injured children in this conflict is quite difficult to gather, but the most recent data from the Palestinian Ministry of Health documents more than 12,000 children – or almost 70 children every day – injured in the Gaza Strip since the current conflict began. This is almost certainly an underestimate because only a small number of all reported injuries are disaggregated to specify when it is a child that has been injured. 

Many children have had existing disabilities worsened or acquired secondary or new disabilities. UNICEF partners report of children who have lost their hearing due to blasts, children who have lost limbs due to amputations, and children who have lost their speech from shock and trauma. 

Among these children, Duha, a 14-year-old girl who sought refuge in Rafah, keeps a vibrant spirit despite limited support to accommodate her hearing loss. She shares a tiny tent with her family of nine. The relentless cold and food and water scarcity mark their life, "Life is incredibly challenging, and the conditions are dire," Duha says. The cold penetrates their shelter, making every day a battle for warmth and essential comfort. Access to the bathroom is a journey fraught with fear, a journey Duha bravely takes only once daily due to the distance and isolation. 

"The cold of winter always makes me sick," Duha says, highlighting the dire consequences of inadequate shelter and resources. Receiving the adolescent kit becomes a lifeline, offering a semblance of normalcy and dignity in their lives. 

Nour, 14 years old, is a young girl with difficulties in talking and hearing who finds peace in the strokes of her pencils, drawing scenes far removed from the playgrounds she yearns for. "I'm very upset because the war prevented me from seeing my school friends," she shares. Amidst the turmoil, her thoughts often wander to her teacher and classmates, hoping for their safety and the intactness of her school.

Nour's world, filled with war echoes, compels her to seek refuge in small acts of self-preservation. "To avoid hearing the sound of bombing, I close my ears," she explains, a simple gesture against the backdrop of chaos. The lack of electricity distracts her from the digital threads connecting her to her peers, deepening her isolation. The loss of a beloved friend to the war adds a profound depth to her sorrow.

“All progress to provide services for children with disabilities in the Gaza Strip has been reversed”, says Ibtisam Abu Shammala, Education Officer in Gaza Field Office. Roads, schools, health facilities, including rehabilitation centers, are destroyed. Service providers themselves are displaced and living in makeshift tents. Most do not have computers, offices or internet connection to work. Those who can leave, have left or are planning to do so. Despite the high personal cost of staying in the Gaza Strip, Ibtisam and other colleagues in Gaza Field Office have stayed to deliver for children, along with partners that are still operational.

In collaboration with partners, UNICEF recognises the unique needs of adolescent girls like Nour and Duha in crises. By delivering nearly 9,700 Adolescent Girls Care and Protection Packages, they provide essential items like sanitary pads and personal hygiene products. These kits' information and recreational activities offer a semblance of normalcy and a step towards healing. Nour and Duha's stories, one of many, highlight the critical need for tailored support to ensure the well-being of girls affected by conflict, echoing a collective wish for peace and the return to innocence lost.

UNICEF has also partnered with a local NGO to visit injured children in hospitals to provide psychological first aid and to comprehensively assess the needs of the child through a multidisciplinary team composed of a doctor, a social worker, a psychologist and a physiotherapist/occupational therapist. Children in need of support will receive case management to provide them with the necessary services, including assistive devices. 

But this is not enough.

It is key that humanitarian aid reaches the children in need in the Gaza Strip at scale, including assistive devices such as hearing aids, wheelchairs, crutches and prosthetics. In addition, urgent medical cases must be able to safely access critical health services or be allowed to leave. Sick and injured children who are evacuated must be accompanied by family members. 

With at least 70 children injured every day, we need the number of medical evacuations to increase so children can access the care they urgently need.  

And with one child reportedly killed or injured every ten minutes, above anything else, we need an immediate ceasefire. It is the only way to stop the killing and maiming of children.